Disclaimer: I am not an economist and I nearly failed business math in college.

Claimer: I’m a musician but I’m above average at spotting bullshit. I’m registered as a Democrat - a fact of which I am no longer proud. And I’ve canvased four times for presidential candidates outside the two party system. If I lived in Ohio, however, I would vote for Kucinich. That said, I would probably vote for Ron Paul if I had to pick a candidate in Texas.

Americans funded enormous corporate welfare payouts a few years ago at the behest of a Republican president.

Ironically the preponderance of "fiscal conservatives" made no contemporaneous calls for a balanced budget or deficit reduction.

Obama continued down that path by bailing out the automotive sector. Peculiarly, there were few calls to let the market correct itself (by letting corporations fail) and none of those originated in congress. I heard Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers say it but no other talking heads would go there.

Now, however, with a Republican Congress back in place, there is a renewed interest in bludgeoning useful and necessary social programs to death. There is, as usual, no conversation about making cuts in the biggest fund sponge of all - "Defense" (or more accurately - The Oil-Aggression Bully Budget).

But greater irony yet awaits you dear reader.

Ezra Pound, an unusual (and quite possibly insane), poet got an audience with Italian fascist dictator Mussolini to discuss fiat currency. Pound argued that dollars (or pounds or pesos or whatever) did NOT have to be tied to a real asset like gold. The money was good simply because the government said it was good. And all that the government had to do to "make it so" was accept the money for payment of taxes. Musolooney dismissed Pound as a nutty American dreamer.

Now here’s the ironic part. Pound was RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT! And this is the system in use in the good ’ol USofA today.

Seeing as how the muses include music, alongside Pound’s poetry, I feel perfectly qualified to discuss economic matters with you.

So let’s review: Fiat currency is not just for buying fancy Italian sports cars by the same name. Fiat currency means that the currency is backed by nothing more than the good faith of the issuing government. If a currency has no intrinsic value (it’s not made out of gold or silver), but it’s good for paying taxes, then it’s fiat.

In an interesting twist the US government, as represented by the Republicans, has effectively told wealthy corporations and rich people: "your money is no good here."

In fact US dollars are so worthless that the US government accepted not one single dollar from corporate giant GE (yep, the same one that built the reactors at Fukushima).

Only dollars from hard working Americans are worth collecting and distributing, to the tune of trillions of them, to failing banks, failing insurance corporations, and failing car makers.

To add insult to injury, it’s fifty-five cents of every one of YOUR dollars that has us embroiled in wars in Afganhistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Libya. And, of course, Dick "the draft dodging hawk" Cheney made sure that the US could start a war anywhere in the world by declaring a borderless "war on terrorism."

And, guess what? The Republicans, ever true to form, want to yank the proverbial rug out from under you. They want to gut Social Security, Medicaid, and Food Stamps. Cuts to the Veteran’s Administration are sure to follow.

They have also, with Obama’s help, maintained their capacity to tap your phone, watch your Internet usage, see what books you check out (advice: don’t check out "Catcher in the Rye" or they might recruit you for MK-ULTRA), look over your medical records, view your bank statements and imprison you (with absolutely no legal recourse on your part). Don’t believe me? Reread the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions act, and a flurry of executive orders).

So what’s it gonna be pilgrim? How much longer will you tolerate this?

Are you going to demand accountability from your "representatives?" (to say nothing of the media) or are you going to stand by as they strip you of your social security retirement check?

Are you going to bury your head in the sand until they come for you? Are you going to let your only representation abroad be in the form of deadly depleted uranium shelling and aggression to steal more oil?

You’ll look good goose-stepping in a brown-shirt or an orange jump suit. That’s stylin’ baby!

The truth about US debt, budget cuts and fiat currencyFriday July 8 - 03:28 - Posted by 25b051da2f1aaf3fe972f1fefb52b5c4...

The simple truth is that representation and representative systems in any way and in any form can be corrupted by fiat money produced 50 times the real monetary amount related to the real economic activities ! Therefore the world stands on its head with private power controlling regional central banks having gained complete world power in controlling, producing and distributing the FIAT MONETARY WORLD SYSTEM together with the most powerful world institutions such as IMF, World Bank, NATO, U.N., WTO , NSI, BIS, CIA, World Int"l Courts etc?... ! ? ? ?

Time has come and is long lagging to put people directly in power : Tribunal of Permanent People’s Power, sign-up and start signing your neighborhood and friends and family for it and forward it to www.oppressedpeople.com : The highest permanent powered institution and planetary court managed by united people and citizens and workers and oppressed peoples , in a direct democracy and complete transparent way and in a mass-management method baptized as DIRECT DEMOCRACY some 160 years ago by Marx and put in practice by The Paris Commune ! People who dared do it got massacred in mass by Bourgeoisie then, but today it becomes a simple absolute necessity facing the Corporate-neo-fascist Financial world order labeled : The New World Order !
Spokesman for the T.P.P.P. Abram Badal

The far-right in Ukraine are acting as the vanguard of a protest movement that is being reported as pro-democracy. The situation on the ground is not as simple as pro-EU and trade versus pro-Putin and Russian hegemony in the region.
When US Senator John McCain dined with Ukraine’s opposition leaders in December, he shared a table and later a stage with the leader of the extreme far-right Svoboda party Oleh Tyahnybok.
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Your support here: http://www.peaceinsyria.org/support.php
We, the undersigned, who are part of an international civil society increasingly worried about the awful bloodshed of the Syrian people, are supporting a political initiative based on the results of a fact-finding mission which some of our colleagues undertook to Beirut and Damascus in September 2012. This initiative consists in calling for a delegation of highranking personalities and public figures to go to Syria in order to (...)

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PART I
PART II
PART III
If there is one major inconsistency in life, it is that young people who know little more than family, friends and school are suddenly, at the age of eighteen, supposed to decide what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, because of their limited life experiences, the illusions they have about certain occupations do not always comport to the realities.
I discovered this the first time I went to college. About a year into my studies, I (...)

PART I
PART II
PART IV
Disillusioned with the machinations of so-called “traditional” colleges, I became an adjunct instructor at several “for-profit” colleges.
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Unlike traditional (...)

PART I
PART III
PART IV
Several years ago, a young lady came into the college where I was teaching to inquire about a full-time instructor’s position in the sociology department. She was advised that only adjunct positions were available. Her response was, “No thanks. Once an adjunct, always an adjunct.”
Her words still echo in my mind.
Even as colleges and universities raise their tuition costs, they are relying more and more on adjunct instructors. Adjuncts are (...)

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When The Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution over two hundred years ago, Americans were blessed with many rights considered to be “fundamental.” One conspicuously missing, however, was the right to an education.
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How much corruption can a “democracy” endure before it ceases to be a democracy?
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In several previous articles for Pravda.Ru, I have consistently warned how the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision is one of the (...)

Imagine, if you will, that the United States government passes a law banning advertisers from sponsoring commercials on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show or Rupert Murdoch’s Fox (Faux) “News” Network.
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I’ve always been reluctant to answer this question for fear it will discourage conscientious and ethical people from pursuing careers in the legal profession—a (...)